The Shrike (also known as the Butcher Bird) is a shrike who appears in the first book and the TV series. In the book it kills several of the fieldmice and voles, including all the newborn babies. In the TV series it only kills the newborn fieldmice. The shrike is seen carrying a baby fieldmouse by the other animals and its larder is quickly discovered by Hare, who also sees the shrike's mate in the thorn bush. He sees that the dead baby mice have been gruesomely impaled among the bloodly thorns.

In the TV series the shrike is seen by Fox as he makes his way back to the other animals, and tells Fox about Hare and Badger. It later tells Vixen to run for her life as she tries to escape from the hunt, taking obvious pleasure in her peril. In the book neither of the foxes encounter the shrike, but Fox does come across its larder and sees the dead voles and fieldmice, which shows him that he is heading the right way towards his friends.

The gender of the shrike is unknown, but it is most likely male as male shrikes are usually the ones who hunt, plus in the TV series it has a male voice, has the typical colors of a male bird and is referred to by Kestrel as male.